The commonly used devices for preventing excessive voltages and current from overloading and damaging an electrical circuit are fuses and circuit breakers. However, fuses can only cope with general overload conditions. Furthermore, replacement after "blowing" a fuse entails threading a new piece of wire between the fuse terminals. Not only is this a cumbersome process, but also the wire must be strong enough to withstand the handling. Although circuit breakers can be reset, they are prohitively costly. Usually, a circuit breaker is used to control several sets of receptacles. Thus, the breaker will be actuated to break the circuit even if one of the receptacles is short-circuited. However, the circuit breaker does not indicate which one of the receptacles is short-circuited, so that it is necessary to take time to find out the short-circuited receptacle.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a safety receptacle which may obviate the above-mentioned drawbacks.